Algorithms for artificial speech recognition may be useful in presentation of auditory stimuli by somatosensory stimulation in profoundly or severely deaf people. Recognized text my be presented on special glasses or electrotactile stimulators. Multichannel electrocutaneous or pulsatile stimulation is essential for tactile presentation of recognized characters in sensory substitution through the sense of touch on the trunk. In this pilot study, a system for multichannel electrotactile stimulation is presented for studying carbon electrodes placed on inert flexible membrane. The system utilized an array of 3x8 or 4x8 stimulators, each of them representing one character. Initial testing of electrotactile character presentation was performed in human subject. Efficiency of artificial speech recognition algorithms and speed of character recognition on the trunk allow good understanding of subject matter. The testing results suggested that this promising method may allow speech recognition by deaf people in real time.

        Key words: hearing prosthesis, somatosensory analyzer, automatic speech recognition